In January 2011 I cycled for almost a month in South West Uganda. This trip was meant as a test run and taster for Africa in preparation for Shane Cycles Africa.
You now have 4 choices:
1. Start reading the blog for the trip by scroll further down the page.
2. Read the tips for cyclists >HERE<.
3. Just be lazy and look at the pictures >HERE<
4. Be even more lazy and watch my poor quality videos from this trip:
Enjoy!!
Copy/paste of origional blog posts :
The road from hell, dusty trails, sun burned mzungu, and of course a ” shortcut”.
The Road from hell.
It was great to be finally on the road and cycling through Entebbe, I headed towards the small port and market hoping to charter a fishing boad across the lake to save a long trip via Kampala, so after 15 minutes of fighting throught the market and getting send around to diffrent people I finally was able to make a deal with a guy with a boat to take me to the other side for 10,000 shillings (4 euro). cool!
Once at the other side followed the dusty road for about 20km to the main Kamala-Masaka road, with the constant shouting of Mzungu (white man)from every kind in every village I passed. Then the raod from hell started, I knew it would be bad but underestimated how bad. It was dusty, noisy smoky and off course they all drive like nutters. Cyclists and pedestrians have no right of way, so the trucks and busses just stay in lane even if the whole road is open. Sometimes theres a shoulder but its usually just potholed dirt, So in the end I just cycled most of this road in the dirt, it was slightly safer that way.
I planned to leave the road and hit the dirt trails just after the equator, but my sunglasses had committed suicide in the first 10 minutes of cycling and I really needed new ones with all that dust…so it was on towards Masaka in the hope of getting new ones.
A night in a 5 (million) star hotel.
After pretty much the whole day dirt rider and dodging trucks I was pretty much finished after 75km, so started looking for a campsite, unfortunatly in Africa theres always people around, walking or cycling somewhere so stealth camping is tricky. After about 10km I finally found a nice spot in the dunes between the road and the lake. An hour later it was dark, with a clear night millions of stars and firebugs lighting up the field…..this is more like it.
Sun burned mzungu.
On to Masaka for new sungalasses and I planned to continue onto the dirt roads. 35km later I hit town, checked out 15 shops/ stalles, markets and then 12 petrol stations later I finally found someone selling sunglasses, they only had womens glasses but I found a pair that fit, so now I’m the proud owner of a very nice pair of ladies ” made in China” . By now I was feeling very dodgy, a little faint, light headed which I couldn’t understand. So what its 35 degrees, I’m drinking enough, I’ve used my factor 60 suncream bought in Entebbe etc etc, but I thought stuff It I’ll just get a hotel, I have the rest of the week to play tough guy. I got a room at the Zebra hotel with a nice room for 37,000 shillings, nice breakfast and an all day buffet for 10, 000 I’m not sure how smart it is to have that food simmering all day at just above room temp. but I didn’t get sick this time:).
After a painfull shower I descovered my factor 50 was fake or something, more like a moisterizer, I was totally burned, the back of ears(that’s alot of skin for me) where fried as where my feet and the back of my legs, and I had a little heatstroke, TIME FOR BED….
After an afternoon snooze, a couple of litres water, the buffet and some guiness, all was once again well. An early breakfast and on the road. What followed was 2 full days cycling on dusty gravel tracks full of potholes, with the occassional car or truck screaming past creating a dust storm. In Entebbe I’d stocked up on food because I had no idea what to expect, but it turns out my 1kg each of rice, flour ,beans and loads of cookies was a little over the top. At almost every village there’s a little shop selling rice, beans, flour coke and not alot more.
With a speed of between 6-12km/h I plodded on through dozens of dusty villages with the background noise of Bye bye Mzungu, Mzungu, how are you mzungu, Mzungu, etc etc. If I took a coke break I was instantly the talk of the town and for every minute I stayed another 5 people came to stare at me, and very occassionally someone would try to start a conversation with limited succes.
The ” Shortcut”
I’d already been cycling for about 7 hours and had covered 60km. Occording to my map there was a nice road that could save me about 10km the next day, so I thought I’d take it and set up camp at the first opportunity, I was pretty tired after 60km gravel in the full sun at 42 degrees.
So I took what I thought was the road, it wasn’t on my gps so I wasn’t too convinced, so I asked a local, and he agreed with me that this was the right road, but I think he just didn’t understand me. Within 2km the road became a track, 2km further it was a footpath, but stubborn as I am (and I didn’t want to cycle that last few hills again), I pushed on ….I’m sure I’ll find the way back to the road. After another 2km I was dragging my back through banana plantations, farmers fields and up goat tracks over the damn steep hills. So after, 10km, 3 hours of cycle pushing and dragging I finally found my way to a road and within 5 minutes was 5km from where I’d started.
The road was full of people houses and villages so it wasn’t untill I reached the Fort Portal road(after another wrong turn that added 15km the next day) that I found a spot to camp after a heavy 95km, by which time it was dark, so I though fuck it, its dark, no one can see me so I’ll just camp here and hope that the farmers that wake me up in the morning are friendly. At 6am I heard the machetes hitting the corn only 15m from my tent, I opened the zip, waved, they waved back, laughed and all was fine.
An oasis of kindness.
On the road by 7.30 I was able to cycle 2 hours before it got to 25 degrees, Of course I was feeling my legs after 4 days and the shortcut, so I sat down for a good second breakfast, got my stove out, had noodles, bread coffee and took a nice break. I planned a shorter day, but as the day wore on and I got more sweaty and warm I really liked the idea of pushing on to Kyanjojo (the largest town on my map before Fort Portal), in the hope that they had a nice hotel. So after a long day in the sun going up and down all day, they call Rwanda the land of a thousand hills, but Uganda is the land of a thousand baby hills, but alot of work all the same.
At around 4pm I arrived in town after 80km of sweating my nuts off, I found a hotel where a couple of white people where drinking coffee, good start I thought!, So I ordered a beer and asked about a room, after a 15 minute wait i was informed that the hotel was full….strange. About this time 2 of the 3 people got on their motorbikes and headed off, so I asked the other guy if he had a tip for a hotel in town, the options where, cheap and nasty or a $50 hotel. Devon then offered some floor space at his house though warned me that it wasn’t much.
If I’d walking into Devons house a year ago I would of walked straight back out, he’s living as a local for the ” peace corps” for 2 years here and his house is 2 small concrete rooms with noisy neighbours.
But for 1 night this becasue my Oasis for rest and relaxation. After 5 dusty, thirsty days living on rice and self made bread, it was great to have some company, cold beer and some home cooking (he knows where to get the fresh vegi’s from at the market). And best of all the ” shower” , a 5 litre jerry can hanging on the wall is not what I’d usally call a shower, but I was so filthy, dusty and sweaty that it was probibly one of the best showers I’ve ever had:)
Thanks Devon for a great evening!!
Yesterday was an easy run into Fort Portal, a nice relaxed 50km on a proper road, it was sunday too so it wasn’t too busy. I’m now stay at the very nice Ruwnezori view guest house for a few days of luxury with a nice room, warm shower, cold beer and great food (and they’re letting me use their computer, just a shame I can’t load any foto’s yet).
Rest day today then tomorrow onto the crater lakes, later this week I have to decide wether to cycle through the QE park or not, I’ve heard so many conflicting stories about wether its allowed or not and wethers its wise with all those lions and elephants…………still have a few days yet to live,,,, And should I survive that, it’ll be into the mountains towards Kisoro, and by then it will be election time, so that could get interesting too….
Stay tuned!
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After 3 hours in an internet cafe with one 56k modem and 2 power cuts I wonder if I’ll ever get this article writen, I’m now going to try and save it after every paragraph, so don’t be suprised if I get cut off again mid story and storm off to the pub..
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Rest day, cheaky monkeys and flat tires (yes flat tires) and damn kids.
After 3 hours in the internet café yesterday and probably the same today, here goes my 5th attempt to update the site…..
In Fort Portal I had a great day off, all my plans of being active and walking into town etc didn’t happen, instead I just sat in my chair all day only getting up for a new beer from time to time.
The next day I took a dusty 18km ride up to the crater lakes and camped at the community campsite next to the first lake. It was a nice quiet spot with a lot of entertainment from the monkeys that came to play near my tent, I also saw the black and white ones when I went for a walk in the forest.
The next day started with a nice quick 18km descent down the trail past a few more beautiful lakes then it was back onto asphalt, so the next 80km went fine too, although a little warm, but that’s nothing new.
On arrival at the QE national park, I spotted the sign for “ QE bush camp 2km” , that’ll do me, its one of those campsites with luxury tents to give the tourists the safari feel. I was welcomed by the bell boy with a glass of cold orange juice (this is going to be an expensive campsite).
Shane: what does a room here cost?
Bell boy: if your with a tour group $60, if not its $90.
Shane: Shit that’s a lot of money, what if I sleep in my own tent?
Bell Boy: I’ll ask the boss……………………….$5 (which later turned out to include breakfast)
Shane: Sold to the man with the big ears!! Give me a cold beer….
After that I had a not too expensive 9 course meal (5 courses where beer of course), it was all very funny, watching them trying to make it into something posh in the middle of the bush.
Meanwhile, while I was drinking my first beer I spotted that my back tire was flat….strange that my Schwalbe marathon extreme “ the ultimate expedition tire” should have a flat, by the end of the evening I’d used 5 of my 6 patches fixing both tires, and apparently I missed a couple because they where flat again in the morning, so I had to go through 2 towns nearby to find more patches. Damn thawns.
Bicycle safari.
I’d planned to take the offroad route through the park which is about 60km through the bush towards Ishara. This route has a high chance to see elephants, buffello’s , warthogs and just maybe lions. According to the guides which I spoke to around the campfire it would be ok to cycle if I just stopped to give the game space to cross the road(only 2 people have been killed on the road in the last 5 years). The day before I’d also bumped into a German cyclist who’d done it but said he wouldn’t do it again (too many elephants).
But because of my tire issues I lost all confidence in the tires, so I really bottled it and didn’t fancy standing in the middle of the road with my bike upside down fixing a flat tire while a family of elephants decides to pass (thanks schwalbe for ruining the highlight of my trip!!)
So instead I took the main asphalt through the park which is only about 15-20km. After that it was a couple of unexpected 1800m passes (my map doesn’t show the hills very well- 1;600,000 ) then I arrived at Ishaka. I spotted a very expensive looking hotel on the way into town so skipped that one and ended up in another overpriced dump instead. Ishaka is just another dusty smoggy town where the internet is awefull. Yesterday morning my knee decided it was time for a rest day, so I moved over to the more expensive hotel and managed to barter the price down to 55,000 shillings, cheaper and much nicer than the previous night.
Damn kids
At first it was fun everyone shouting Mzungu or ‘ow are you a dozen times, especially the kids, Now I’m sick of the constant noise, which only gets worse if I don’t acknowledge them, I now hear the chant thousands of times a day which eventually gets boring and irritating when they persist, this also comes on top of the fact that every car, truck, bus and scooter uses their horn every 50 metres. Worst of all are the select group of age 10+ kids that have learned a little more English, they can say “ Give me MY money/pencil/water/shoes(?)” . But I guess that’s the price of travelling in a poor country.
Yet again at breakfast today, as all days that I’ve been in a hotel or bar, the TV was on at almost full volume, as well as “background music”. Uganda is not a country to come to if you want peace and quiet!
Ok, now lets see if I can crash the internet again when I try to save this………(still waiting after 90 minutes)
Heading for Kisoro now, bring on the mountains, another 4-5 days and I’ll be in the tourist towns again (Kibale/kisoro and the lake), just maybe they’ll have internet that works. Its time for some camping again, I need the quiet.
Bye..
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Searching for the worst roads in Uganda, anchors and granny gear all the way!
Thanks to the very bad internet in Ishaka I had quite a late start, to remove the internet stress and use the tomato’s/peppers that Id been carrying for days I stopped by a nice river and cooked up a huge lunch with only 2 young boys and 10 cows as spectators, the cows approved of my bike apparently it looks smells and tastes great!
The rest of the day was a bone shaking ride over the roughest most potholed road I’ve ever ridden. Ishaka to Rukungiri got the record for worst road I’ve ever been on. A record that only lasted one day. Just before town I spotted a nice spot in the woods and had a nice quiet night and a great sleep, and woke with a sore throat from the snoring!
Rukungiri to Karungu, a nice easy 25km down in maybe an hour or so then 5 hours doing the next 25km back up again, easy done in 6 hours…….Wrong, a new record was set for the worst road I’ve ever cycled, 3 hours bouncing down a rocky, potholed grit road hanging onto my brakes for dear life, followed by 6 hours of climbing.
I was greeted in Karungu with hotel names like WCHOTEL, and many other dodgy looking places, just in time a spotted a white person and asked for a tip for somewhere to stay. Paul turned out to be with a church group from Christian link (or something like that) with a group of school leavers for 4 months voluntary work in the area. Paul sorted me out with a room at a guest house(insert name here later) nearby. The food and service where great but the room and toilet where pretty “ crappy”, I pretended not to see the rat shit and cockroach under the bed because I couldn’t cycle further anyway.
The day of hell.
Once again a bumpy down hill start, followed by a 1500m climb over and equally bad grit road as the previous days. Maps in africa are famous for being “ just and indication” this was the day where my map finally let me down, I underestimated the distance, there where less towns than usual and they didn’t have much in the way of supplies. Although it was a beautiful ride through the Bwindi national park, with great scenery and plenty of monkeys, baboons and birds to see (no gorilla’s), it was an 11 hour thirsty journey. Luckily I have a water filter with me so I was able to refill at river. But this wasn’t enough, I still did the last hour of climbing with empty legs and no water or snacks. What didn’t help was the regular call of Mzungu give me money from the kids, I regularly got followed for 2-3km by 20-30 kids…..great!
A room with a view
Thirsty, hungry and tired I rode into Ruhija, where they luckily had a couple of campsites, I pulled into the Ruhija, gorilla friends campsite and within 30 seconds I had a water bottle in one hand and a cold beer in the other. I was just wondering where I was supposed to get the energy from to cook dinner, shower and put my tent up before dark, when one of the staff asked if rice and vegitables would be ok for dinner and if I didn’t mind waiting till 8pm. These moments always bring a tear to my eye, just when I’m at rock bottom something so simple as rice and vegetables can make me so happy!!!
I then had a great night with a couple of Germans who insisted that I should push on to Lake Bunyonyi the next day instead of taking a rest day.
The views from this campsite are awesome, waking up with a cup of coffee at 2300m looking down on the valley is great.
Obviously the next day was painful getting to Lake Bunyonyi (especially the last very steep climb to the lake itself). But it was worth it, I usually find “ you must go there” places pretty crap and too touristy, but this place is great ( get here before the rest of the tourists find it!)
So now we drink for tomorrow we rest! Feeding myself up, relaxing and drinking cold fluids for a couple of days till I get bored, also fixed my very bent wheel today.
Shane’s tip of the day;
Don’t try to adjust the position of your front pannier with your foot while riding at 20km/h, you might just hit a pothole, your foot might just jump into your spokes and you might just come to a grinding painful stop.
Luckily I didn’t break anything, and my foot is ok too.
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Damn kids, hungry Mzungu and a quick end.
After 3 1/2 days of cold beer, great pizza’s and the occassional swim in Lake Bunyonyi, it seemed I was never going to escape from the Kalebas guesthouse. But reluctently I got my lazy arse into gear and headed up to Kisoro. It’s strange that the first climb after a few rest days is always very painfull.
I followed the dirt track along the lake for a couple of hours then got blessed by that wonder of modern engineering that you dont see much in Uganda, a beautiful tarmac road with shoulder. And to top it all it was graded too, so it was only a couple of hours plodding up to 8000ft. Unfortunatly at the summit the beautiful tarmac became good old fashion, roadworks dust and dirt for the 30km into Kisoro. Why dont they just do it 5km at a time so that most of the road is ok…..
Gorilla tracking
It was very cloudy during the descent into Kisoro so I started asking myself why I was actually taking a detour of 2 days to visit the town. Kisoro is a small frontier town and the last stop for people going to Congo, Rwanda or gorilla tracking. But as I had no plans to pay $500(80% of which goes to the government btw) to see gorilla’s for an hour, climb a volcano or visit congo/Rwanda, Kisoro had nothing to offer apart from noise dust, and lots of touts asking if I wanted to buy a gorilla permit. So the next day I headed back up the same dusty road I’d followed the day before.
Damn kids(2)
Up until Kabale/lake Bunyonyi the amout of kids asking for money/pen had increased to about 70%. Unfortunatly the road between Kabele and Kisoro was hell on earth in this respect, 99% of the kids where asking for money/pen, and often quite aggressive about it too. One kid hassled me for about 3km and when he finally decided he’d had enough punched my rear pannier(I thought) and ran off. Once in town I realized that my sunblock was missing……great, sunburn again. The full damage of the incident became apparent the next day, after spending about 3 hours climbing back out of the Kisoro valley (nice views of the Volcano’s btw), I was pretty hungry(I mean really hungry), so decided to stop and cook up a big lunch with the rest of my rice, kidney beans and tomato sauce. Only to find out the little shit from yesterday had also stolen the pump from my burner, so no rice and a lunch of cold kidney beans and tomato sauce…….sense of humour failure moment *&%^&*(%$.
Once in town (yes Kabale is noisey and dusty too…) I thought stuff it, credit card time and booked 2 nights in one of the most expensive hotels in town (knocked them down to $40 a night) though I passed on the deluxe suite which costs $500.
How to get back to Entebbe?
This was a question that had been plaguing me for the duration of the trip. The road from Kibale to Entebbe/Kampala falls into the suicide cycling category for a large part of its 400km. But getting a bus for this route falls into the suicide bus ride category. So I thought I’d just give it a go, after 2 hours I stopped at a little village for my morning coke, and got invited for a drink of “White porridge”with the locals. Not that I’m one to pass up a free drink, but going blind at 10am by drinking local moonshine is something I was able to pass up this time.
Once on the road again I heard the beep of a horn, which turned out to be my German friends from Bunyonyi Siggi/Claudia, who proceded to offer me a lift to Masaka………..problem solved, I get to prove I’m not always a purist and I get to stay alive:).
And the rest as they say is history, a nice night camping at a lake near Masaka, cycled over to the Ssese Islands and after being broken for a couple of weeks the ferry to Entebbe was working again, 36 hours later I was on a plane heading back home, nice and safe the day before the elections and the possible troubles ahead…..
So thats it for this trip, Now time for a good think about the big trip and how I’m going to do it. In the mean time in the coming weeks I’ll clean the foto’s and articles up from the last weeks and see if I can put a video together.
So, as the sun sets on yet another trip I’d like to say thanks all for visiting and reading about this little adventure, stay tuned for Shane cycles Africa part II.
Home
A place where you can take a relaxed shit on a clean toilet in a clean bathroom.
A place where you can lie in a warm bath for hours trying to get all that African dust off your body.
A place where you can wear cloths that smell nice every day.
A place where the beer is always cold, the electricity and internet always work.
It’s good to be home, a feeling that usually only lasts a couple of days until I start getting itchy wheels again…….